694 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of red-hot lava, hardly solidified, extended over the incandescent 

 nucleus of our globe. An eternity then passed before the fiery sphere 

 was forever confined within its coffin of granite. The metalloids domi- 

 nant in this chaos of affinities and repulsions were then floating in an 

 irrespirable atmosphere along with a mass of aqueous vapors. At 

 the end of many millions of years, the waters definitely took their 

 place around the globe. But who can ever tell what useless abortions, 

 to be destroyed as soon as they were created, arose in these oceans 

 saturated with anomalous substances? The first germs of life doubt- 

 less arose from the thick proliferous stratum which was developed 

 under the pressure of a dense atmosphere in contact with liquids still 

 warm, incessantly traversed by electric currents of unimaginable in- 

 tensity. It was a sprout that arose everywhere at once. But in 

 those innumerable spontaneous efforts, continued during the enor- 

 mous length of time required to purify the atmosphere from its acrid 

 vapors and the seas from their foreign matters, only a small number 

 of these germs achieved a beginning of vegetation. This, according 

 to Madame Royer's theory, was the way life began on the globe. 



The author next examines the complete series of the phases of evo- 

 lution gone through by the species, and then the development of the 

 mental faculties, the chief feature of difference which in the view 

 of some thinkers creates a gap between man and the rest of the animal 

 kingdom. She demonstrates that the primary qualities of mind are 

 identical in all living creatures, even in those of least development. 

 The intelligence of man is simply superior to the mental organism 

 of the animal. This is, however, only a relative superiority, not 

 differing in nature from the animal's intelligence, but only in form 

 and intensity. 



After relating the history of man in prehistoric times, our phi- 

 losopher gives, in the second part of her work, the present picture of 

 the races as their physical characteristics and their social orders dif- 

 ferentiate them so profoundly: At the top, the white race, the last 

 flower of the genealogical tree, to which all the great nationalities 

 belong. By the side of it, its two diverging branches, the Turanians 

 (Hungarians, Finns, and Turks) and the Aramaeans or Semites 

 (Jews, Arabs, and Syrians). Then come the three — Hyperborean, 

 Mongolian, and Sinitic — branches of the yellow stock, who inhabit 

 eastern and northern Asia. We find also the Malays covering the 

 surface of the two southern peninsulas of Asia and Oceania. They 

 constitute a lateral ramification, which, together with the red or 

 copper-colored race of North America, may have had the same point 

 of departure as the Mongols. Lastly comes the negro race, which 

 has been separated a much longer time from the common stock from 

 which man has diverged. 



